


When The Chips Are Down (Try A Different Flavor)

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Curses, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Humor, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Roadtrip, Sharing a Bed, Witch Stiles Stilinski, Witch's Shop, almost fake relationship, ish, sbroadtrip, sterekbingo, sterekbingo2018, too many nerd references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 19:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14700927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Derek came home to find his house being steadily swallowed by plants, and because his bad luck couldn't be satisfied until it gotmonumentally worse, the only way to get rid of them involved going on an eight-hour drive with a local witch for some spell ingredientsBecause ofcourse it is





	When The Chips Are Down (Try A Different Flavor)

**Author's Note:**

> This is yet another case of "my original plan was very different but when I sat down to write it got warped" but I like it for what it is
> 
> Bonus points if you catch _all_ of the nerd references!
> 
> (Also no offense to Age Of Ultron fans, I'm just a much bigger fan of Suicide Squad <3)

Honestly, Derek wasn't even surprised

Perhaps he should have been, but he wasn't

After being away from Beacon Hills- the cursed town to end all cursed towns- for several years, he finally came back to find that his house- or what had remained of it anyway- had been overtaken by plants

The nuisances had crept around pretty much every corner and kept him completely unable to get in, considering that the doors and windows had it so badly they were sealed shut

At first, he really didn't know what to do with himself

He knew by a glance that this was a curse and not just nature being an irritation, so it wasn't like he could just slash through the weeds and be done with it

No, he knew that they would grow back even thicker and faster if he did that, like hair after shaving....

The only way to get rid of the infuriating pest was by means of magic, but being that Derek was a werewolf, he didn't exactly have direct access to the mysical forces of nature

...

Wich was exactly how he had ended up _here_ , staring up at a sign that read _"Beacon Hills Cures And Curses"_ , and largely regretting his life choices

With a slightly frustrated sigh, he finally forced himself to enter the shop, feeling a slight wave of calm as he stepped inside, the door closing behind him with a soft click

There was something about the air in the shop, maybe it was the scent of the incense or maybe it was just the energy it's self, that made him feel instinctively calmer, wich probably should have raised some red flags but honestly... he didn't really mind it

He could somehow sense that the force behind it was fully and completely benevolent, no ill harm intended

_For once...._

"Hey there, can I help you?"

Blinking, he hurriedly glanced away from the curious shelf of bottles and jars he had been staring at and turned his attention instead to the man standing across from him

He was quite beautifull, with brown hair and pale skin dotted with moles, soft pink lips and beautifull brown eyes...

But Derek knew better than to be drawn in by beautifull people at this point

"I'm not sure... can you remove a curse?"

"Probably, what kind of curse is it?" the witch- he assumed he was the witch, or atleast _a_ witch- said with an easy shrug

"There are plants growing all over my house,"

"And I take it you don't mean the potted variety,"

The wolf clenched his jaw, giving his head a quick shake in response

"It's crawling up the sides of my house, blocking all of my doors and windows, I can't get in,"

"Ah... the Creeping Kudzu Curse," the witch said with a slow, knowing nod

....

_Really?_

"It isn't really called that though... is it?" Derek asked with a small, tense frown

"Actually it is," the witch replied with a small smirk, seemingly over-amused at that

_Ofcourse_....

"Alright, so, can you get rid of it?"

"I can, but unfortunately I'm missing a couple of ingredients for the spell I'll need,"

Great...

"So how long will it take for you to get them?"

The witch winced at that, nose wrinkling, arms crossing over his chest as he leaned back against the counter and rocked on his feet, seeming to rack his mind for answers to that question

"Well.... that's a little tricky, if I order them I could have them by some time next week,"

_"Next week?"_

Sure, _ofcourse_ it would be next week, because that was Derek's life

It figured

"OR I could go pick some up and have it here by tommorrow,"

Obviously if the choice seemed this obvious then Derek was missing something- there was a catch the witch wasn't mentioning here somewhere

"What's the catch?" he frowned

"Well, the nearest place I can get some ingredients is from a freind of mine.... in Domino Hills,"

"That's an eight hour drive from here," Derek pointed out with a frown

"I know, I'm willing to make it though, I actually have wanted to go see my freind for a wile, this would be a good opportunity for it, I can leave my apprentice in charge of the shop for the rest of the day and drive up there, be back by tommorrow afternoon,"

....

"What's the catch?" he repeated a little more tensely

"What? What do you mean?"

"I mean, why would you offer to suddenly take two days off of work to make an outrageously long drive just to pick up ingredients for a single spell? What, is it an especially expensive spell or is it going to cost me something besides cash?"

"Wow, calm down Mulder, there's no greater conspiracy here, I want to go see my freind anyway, you're giving me a good excuse, that's all, nothing sinister, I promise," he replied slowly

And judging by the sound of his heartbeat, he was- ....... telling the truth..... and Derek had no idea what to do with that

Unless, ofcourse, he was using some kind of magic to conceal the skip in his heartbeat, but the werewolf somewhat doubted that, it would have taken quite an impressive stunt to be able to conceal his heartbeat on the spot like this without doing or saying anything that might get pinned as suspicious....

"I see," Derek replied slowly

"Do you have any place to stay over night until I get the ingredients together or...?"

"No, but I can always get a hotel room, it isn't a big deal,"

After all, Derek had spent more time in motels and hotels in the last several years than he ever wanted to admit to, what was one more?

"It's KIND of a big deal," the witch protested with a slightly tense frown

"Look, I don't want you to have to do that, so how about you just come with me to Domino?"

....

_What?_

"What?"

"I want you to come with me, I mean I'm going to get the ingredients for a spell for YOU, after all, so it seems kinda fair..."

"How stupid do you think I have to be to get in a car for an eight hour drive with a complete stranger?"

 

~+~

 

"I cannot believe I am stupid enough that I'm getting in a car for an eight hour drive with a complete stranger,"

"You're not stupid, actually you're pretty sensible, you're doing what you need to do to get back in your house,"

Stiles- the name of the witch- had laid something of a guilt trip on him about not wanting to travel alone for an eight hour car ride and that, plus his "gentle" reminder that the only motel within an hour of the area was the creepy one that kept a tally of their unusually high suicide rate....

Well, here Derek stood, begrudgingly watching as Stiles put an overnight bag in the back of the jeep

Wasn't his life grand?

"I'm still not completely buying the 'I don't want to be on a roadtrip alone for eight hours' excuse, just so you know,"

"Seriously?" Stiles sighed back, obviously unimpressed

"Seriously, and I'm not going to trust you at all until I know the real reason that you insist on dragging me along with you, so you might as well spit it out,"

"That IS the real reason," Stiles groaned, slamming the trunk down and glaring around the car at the werewolf, a moment ticking by breifly before he finally heaved a sigh and let his shoulders sag

"Well... it's MOST of the real reason,"

He _knew_ it

"And the rest?" Derek asked flatly

"I was just wondering if ... maybe you could do me a favor, in return for getting your spell free of charge,"

"What kind of favor?"

He really didn't like where this was going...

"Well, my freind in Domino.... he's a little... protective of me, I got out of a pretty bad relationship a few months ago and he's .. ya' know... _concerned_ about me, he wants me to find someone else, start dating again, wich I'm not opposed to, I just haven't found anyone yet, and anyway, he's been threatening lately to set me up with someone and I do _not_ want to get set up with anyone, so I was just ... wondering... if it was no big deal to you... maybe you could uh... pretend to be my boyfreind wile we're there?"

Derek waited

He waited for more information, he waited for the other shoe to drop, but...

That seemed to be it, Stiles went quiet after that

"..... Is that it?"

Stiles blinked, seemingly confused by that

"Um.... well, yeah, I mean..... isn't that enough?"

"I don't know, people usually want alot more,"

Stiles looked like he was about to ask, but much to Derek's releif, he held off, atleast for the time being

"Well... I'm not one of those people,"

Derek nodded slowly, opening the passenger side door and sliding into the car

"Then we should get along just fine, let's go,"

 

~+~

 

"So how long were you gone?"

The question caught Derek off guard, in particular because they had been driving for fifteen minutes now in moderate silence, the only noise between them being the CD that Stiles had put on the moment he turned the engine on

He hadn't really expected small talk

"I'm sorry...?"

"Well, if the plants have invaded that much already then you must have been gone for atleast a few days, maybe a week, without disturbing the house, so... how long were you gone?"

"Seven years,"

The awkward pause that followed was, atleast, completely expected on Derek's part

He had had a feeling that that would bring Stiles to silence, even if only for a few moments

"That... that's quite a vacation,"

"A forced vacation yes, the house was burned down with my family inside of it after a hunter got her way, my sister had the house rebuilt a couple of years ago but she died before we could move back, now I'm finally here to ..."

Actually, Derek wasn't entirely sure what he was here to do

He had left Beacon Hills in the first place because of his family's deaths and he had left New York because of Laura's death, now he was back in Beacon Hills because he didn't know where else to go

He never would have thought about going to New York at all back when he was a teenager- that had been Laura's call, she had been the one to organize all of their moves when it came to outrunning hunters and avoiding danger, and now with her gone he was just sort of... floating out in the open sea hoping that something he did would stick for the better...

"I... there's really nothing I could say to that to make it even remotely better, is there?"

"No, but you don't need to say anything,"

Stiles went quiet for another moment, the music filling in a painfully awkward silence for a few agonizing seconds before he spoke up again

"Well, on the bright side, atleast this narrows things down a bit,"

"What do you mean?" the wolf frowned with confusion

"Like I said, in order for the curse to advance to this stage where you can't even get in your house, it had to have been there for atleast a week, right?"

"Right...."

"BUT, by that same rule, there's a time limit of how much time COULDN'T have passed too,"

Derek's jaw tensed, nose wrinkling slightly

"I don't follow..."

"The kudzu grows at a particular speed when cursed, it takes atleast a week for it to reach the level that it has now, but if it had been growing for more than a _month_ , your house would be so buried that you wouldn't even be able to tell it was a house anymore,"

"I see... so you're saying that whoever cursed me must have done so between a week and a month ago, right?"

"Yep, can you think of any significant people you've met or maybe cheesed off within that amount of time?"

Well... now that Stiles mentioned it...

"Actually, there is someone... and she just happens to be a darach..."

The witch paused, a disbelieving, disappointed look plastered to his face as he glared at the man next to him

"You know a darach- who, apparently, doesn't have a good relationship with you- and you think only NOW to tell me?"

"Does it change how you have to handle breaking the curse?"

"Well no... but still, if I was dealing with that level of dark magic, I would've liked to have been informed upfront,"

"Sorry," the werewolf muttered back, eyes averting to stare out the window and running his tongue against his teeth in frustration

Ofcourse, this was Derek's life, so ofcourse he would do everything wrong....

"Hey..." Stiles said a second later, apparently catching the rather down look on his companion's face

"It isn't your fault, alright? Whatever happened between you two, whatever is going on with this curse... none of it is your fault so don't take any of it personally, or atleast... try not to, I know saying just a blanket _don't_ really isn't all that helpfull but..."

"How do you know it wasn't my fault?" Derek frowned

"Because she's a darach, and trust me, darachs cast curses at people who _breathe_ too loudly, if you HAD done anything sincerely terrible she would have just killed you,"

"Oh is that right? I feel so much better now," the wolf snorted sarcastically

"Hey, don't get fresh with me, I'm just telling you how it is,"

" _Get fresh_? What era are you from?"

Stiles snorted, reaching over and playfully slapping Derek's arm, wich actually elicited a look of amusement from the werewolf

"Oh get over yourself, you're the one who said 'groovy' earlier,"

"Yeah but _fresh_?"

"I can and will kick you out of this car right now,"

"But then who would be your fake boyfreind?"

"I- ....... shut up!"

Derek smirked, leaning back and turning the music up a little louder

Maybe this wouldn't be such a terrible trip after all....

 

~+~

 

"If you want snacks or a drink or something, now's the time to get it,"

Derek sort of figured that, given they had just pulled into a gas station, but he wasn't going to comment on it, instead he just unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door, pausing breifly as he stepped out

"I'm getting something to drink, do you want anything?"

"A cherry slushie and barbque chips would be _groovy_ ," Stiles smirked, eyebrows wiggling teasingly

Derek was going to have to live for the next two days hearing that every few sentences, he just knew it...

"Boy, that's an accident waiting to happen," he snorted, shutting the door behind him and heading in

A bright red syrupy drink and crumbly, almost sticky chips... was Stiles _trying_ to ruin his car?

Although in all fairness the thing seemed to be held together with duct tape and a prayer so maybe he knew more about it than Derek did, and it wasn't like the werewolf had any right to judge anyway, it wasn't like he kept his car as a strict no-liquids-no-food zone either....

He shook his head, making it an absolute point to quit dwelling on it and instead making his way towards the back of the convenience store to get the slushie Stiles wanted

In retrospect, he really should have asked for what size, but the more he thought about it, the more he considered that giving the witch anything bigger than a small would be tantamount to suicide

Sure, he had no _proof_ that Stiles would bounce off the walls like a four-year-old if he drank too much sugar, much in the same way that he had no _proof_ that a bear would kill him if he slapped it in the face, but some common sense and base knowledge of the animal in question were really all he needed to deduce that perhaps proceeding with caution was the best choice here

He had just been finishing up with the blend of sugar, caffeine, and red dye #5 that dared to call it's self a drink when he felt something suddenly land on his arm

As a reflex reaction, he spun around so quickly that the red terror in his hand sloshed all over the person who was now in front of him

...

And that person was Stiles

".... I was just going to ask you to get me a large in that,"

Derek didn't even have time to work up a sarcastic response, because the moment those words were out of Stiles' mouth, he turned around and ran his fingers in a hovering motion over his ruined shirt, and, much to Derek's amazement, the stain came right out, as if it were never there to begin with

The fabric was bone-dry too

"Now," the witch mused, grabbing a larger cup from beside Derek's head and holding it out suggestively towards the werewolf

"You need to bop bop bop this thing right to the top,"

.....

Well, atleast he knew that Stiles was, in fact, an actual witch now, and now just some crazy guy leading him on a wild goose chase....

...

"I cannot BELIEVE you just made a Highscool Musical reference in the middle of broad daylight in a public place,"

 

~+~

 

_When you hold me in your arms so tight_  
You let me know that everything's alright  
I'm hooked on a feeling  
I'm high on believing  
That you're in love with me 

"So, let me get this straight.... since this trip began, we've listened to Fleetwood Mac, Taylor Swift, Fallout Boy, and now that we've- I assume- finished with Marina And The Diamonds, we've officially moved on to superhero movie soundtracks.... is that right?"

Admittedly, Stiles' musical library was.... kind of impressive

He had _four_ somewhat massive CD books with him, each one as full as the last, and they spanned everything from Disney music to oldschool rock and roll to modern alternative and everything in between, he even had some opera and country in there

Obviously Derek knew how he spent his free time (not to mention his paychecks) now

"Ok first of all, variety is the spice of life, there's a reason I've only listened to one album a peice so far, and second of all, it's _Guardians Of The Galaxy_ dude, an auditory masterpeice! Don't act like I'm listening to .... _Ghostrider: The Album_ or something,"

For the sake of his own sanity, Derek really hoped that Stiles was just making up the idea that that even existed....

"Yeah but you also have Suicide Squad in here," Derek pointed out

"And what, you didn't like Suicide Squad?" Stiles snorted in annoyance, clearly expecting Derek to say exactly that

...

Problem was.....

"I never said that," he muttered back, sinking in his seat, face shaded red

" _Oh. My. Gamora._ You like it too don't you!? I knew there had to be more Suicide Squad fans out there than Scott would lead me to believe!!"

"I don't get why that movie is panned so hard, it tops _plenty_ of Marvel movies in my opinion,"

He was turning even darker red now, bordering dangerously on maroon, but the ecstatic look on Stiles' face was keeping him from getting too embarrassed atleast

" _Right!?_ I mean look, I am a huge Marvel fan, ok? I really am, but Age Of Ultron _atleast_ is definitely under Suicide Squad,"

Derek snorted, the look of embarrassment on his face slowly starting to fade into one of amusement as the conversation grew gradually more familiar

"I just hope Gotham City Sirens busts down the door of expectations, I know people have this opinion that DC can do no right but Wonder Woman already proved that wrong, and honestly, if Harley's coming-out movie- or.. however you want to describe it- gets any less attention, I'm going to be-"

"I'll be a little more than _bi-furious_ about it myself," Stiles grinned, clearly proud of himself

There was a pause, short and simple, as Derek flipped to another page of CDs

"Nice Scott Pilgrim reference,"

It was a good thing they had arrived at a red light, Stiles looked like he would have stomped on the brakes either way honestly

"Are you telling me..... that after seven years, I FINALLY meet another Scott Pilgrim fan, and it's YOU!?"

Derek shrugged, his face starting to turn red again as he kept his eyes averted from the witch's

"I skimmed it," he mused back, his voice completely flat, despite how hard it was to keep the amusement out of it

He managed

" _Holy crap you mega nerd_ ,"

Derek only shrugged again, although this time it was clearly more of a thing of pride

He wasn't... the most _social_ person

The fire had left him with alot of scars and he rarely felt like he could get on with people, and the few times he tried, it usually ended badly, so to be finding himself actually enjoying Stiles' company- _thoroughly_ enjoying it- was a rare treat indeed, aided by the fact that Stiles seemed to attend exactly the same particular brand of geek that Derek himself did

"I feel like I've dragged you into my world,"

Clearly, it was a test, and it was one that Derek would easily pass

"I got here on my own, but I appreciate the company,"

For a few long, drawn out seconds, there was no sound in the car except for the music, and then

" _ **Please** marry me_ ,"

"Let's see how the fake boyfreind thing goes first and _then_ we'll talk about it,"

Derek paused then, eyebrows raising and a slight frown marring his face as he held the CD album out towards Stiles and pointed to the second one in the sleeve

_Monster High: Boo York, Boo York_

" _Really_?"

"Hey, it's a good soundtrack!"

Well, if there hadn't been reason enough to believe it until now, Derek could- with 100% certainty- say: He really didn't need to worry about Stiles murdering him in his sleep or anything

He's pretty sure the freaking Monster High CD is a dead give-away that Stiles isn't actually dangerous

Crazy, possibly, but not dangerous

 

~+~

 

"Really? I thought we had matured past the _'oh no, there's only one bed, I guess that means we have to share'_ fic trope by now, I mean come on, it's as old and cliche as it gets,"

And apparently, Stiles thought that life was controlled by fanfiction tropes

_Amazing_

"I wouldn't say that, it's a classic, you can't argue with the classics," Derek insisted, stepping into the motel room and setting his bag on the floor

He had only brought along a small overnight bag, smaller than Stiles', so it wouldn't be much to fuss with atleast

" _Hotel California_ , Dracula, Edgar Allan Poe, Kirk and Spock, The Killing Joke, Star Wars, Pokemon, Reeses candy.... you can't beat the classics,"

"Ok, well, as much as I love the fact that there's apparently no ceiling to your big fat nerd tower here, I'm gonna have to disagree," Stiles frowned, tossing his bag down next to Derek's and shutting the door with his foot

" _Muskrat Love_ , Pride And Prejudice, Shakespeare, I can't really argue ships because ship and let ship but Death Of Superman, It's A Wonderfull Life, Dragonball, and gummy bears, there's not even any flavor in gummy bears, so why!?"

"Well first of all, I meant Pokemon as a video game, not as an anime,"

There was a pause, Stiles seeming to take that into consideration for a moment

"Ok, thats fair, and I admittedly don't know enough about classic video games to argue but my point still stands, I think,"

Derek just rolled his eyes- albeit playfully- and shrugged, walking towards the opposite side of the room

"Don't worry, I'll sleep on the floor, you don't have to be concerned,"

"Well now wait a second," Stiles said quickly, causing Derek to restrain a smirk

"I never said you had to do that,"

"I thought sharing a bed was too cliche," he pointed out teasingly

"Well... that's never stopped me from doing something before, and besides, the bed is pretty big, it'd be really stupid to make you sleep on the floor when there's plenty of room,"

"You aren't making me, I'm volunteering,"

Stiles rolled his eyes, kicking his shoes off and jerking his bag open

"Derek, just share the freaking bed,"

The werewolf held back a smirk, opening his own bag in the process

"Whatever you want,"

 

~+~

 

When Derek started to wake, it was still dark out

At first he just assumed it was especially early in the morning, five o'clock maybe, it wasn't all that uncommon for him to wake up around that time for one reason or another, but the moment he glanced over at the little digital clock on the nightstand, he found himself proven _quite_ wrong

Why the hell was he up at _2:36 A.M._?

He blinked a few times, eyes adjusting to the dark as he turned his attention upwards, only then noticing that someone was hovering over him

He tensed, preparing to leap up and defend himself, when he suddenly- and finally- took notice of who it was

"Stiles!? What the hell are you doing!?"

Obviously, the witch hadn't noticed that his companion had woken up, as he suddenly jumped, clutching his chest and nearly tumbling off of the bed

"Holy crap Derek, warn a guy!"

" _You_ are the one who was- who still IS- hovering over _me_ , maybe _you_ should warn a guy,"

There was a short moment of silence before Derek, after taking a few calming breaths, ran his fingers through his hair and stared up at the witch on top of him

"Do you want to tell me _why_ you're on top of me?"

"Well, I got to thinking," the witch began, slowly rolling off of him and perching himself on the other end of the bed in front of the werewolf

"If that darach went so far as to curse your house, what if it wasn't the only curse she cast? Maybe she cursed you more directly too,"

"Alright.... so explain how this translates to you straddling me in my sleep?"

"I was trying to do a ... think of it as a magical system diagnostic, see if my magic could pick up on any other magic that might be infecting you,"

That was... actually kind of nice, honestly

It was considerate, and it was something that even Derek himself hadn't actually thought about, but knowing Jennifer....

"Did you find anything?" he asked anxiously

"No... I was just finishing with it when you woke up, I didn't see anything alarming," he replied, though it sounded almost... frustrated, like he was disappointed with that

"Gee, don't sound so excited," the werewolf said blandly

"Sorry, I just.... I don't know, something feels off, Creeping Kudzu isn't exactly your typical curse, it's more like an elaborate prank, I feel like she's just messing with you with that..."

"And lying in wait to do something worse?" Derek guessed tensely

"Yeah.... exactly, so you feel it too?"

"Feel it... know my own rotten luck... whatever," he shrugged back

Because ofcourse that would be typical of things, it would figure that he would think he was finally getting rid of the curse only for something even worse to pop up in it's place...

"I wonder if it's acting like a Crush Virus card..." Stiles mused absently, leaning back against the headboard

"... Run that by me again?" Derek asked flatly

"Well... did you ever wach Yu-Gi-Oh?"

"Does the fate of the world rest on a children's card game?"

"Ooh, ok, cool, so you'll get this reference- and your nerd points go up, awesome- ok, so when you play a Crush card you have to infect one of your own monsters with it, as bait, so that when your opponent destroys your monster their entire deck gets infected, right?"

"So... you're saying that the plants might be acting in the same fashion? Destroy the smaller curse- the plants- and once they're gone it activates the bigger effect of a bigger and more devastating curse?"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking,"

"So should we even be trying to destroy this curse then? If it's just going to activate something even bigger..."

"Oh we're DEFINITELY destroying it, much like an overly complicated children's card game, all curses have loopholes, there's no such thing as an unbreakable curse, so all we need to do is figure out what this one is, and that's, ofcourse, assuming that there even is another curse behind it at all, we're just basing this off of random guesses at this point,"

"Still.... what's the plan?"

He trusted Stiles, maybe more than he should for someone who he had met so shortly ago, but he did

Stiles had so far proven himself to be more trustworthy than anyone else Derek had had in his life over the last several years, and as long as that wasn't a complete guise....

"First, we're going to Domino, we're gonna get the supplies I need and visit my freind, get his opinion on this too, then we're gonna head back to Beacon Hills and do some experiments, see what I can milk out information wise from those plants, you can stay with me in the mean time, and then, depending on what kind of info I get- if any- that'll dictate where we go from there, sound like a plan?"

Derek gave a slow, tense nod

He felt... weirdly empowered by this

Like for once he had the upper hand, for once he wasn't going to be completely caught off guard, for once...

He just hoped that he was right

He hoped that he was making the right decisions here

"Good, then let's get some sleep, we've got alot of driving to do tommorrow,"

Derek nodded as he watched Stiles crawl closer, and although he knew that it was only to get back to the top of the bed, he couldn't help feeling.... a weird _compulsion_ of sorts...

Without thinking- for once, without _over_ thinking- he leaned in closer, gently cupping the witch's face and holding him still, keeping him in place as he stared into Stiles' deep brown eyes, seriousness printed all over his face

"Stiles.... thank you for this,"

Stiles smirked slightly, leaning in a little bit closer to press his forehead against the werewolf's, his eyes dancing with mischeif and playfullness

"You don't need to thank me for anything, seriously,"

"I do, you're doing ... you're doing alot for me for no real reason and-"

Suddenly, Stiles surged forward, just enough to catch the other's lips in a soft, quick kiss, his face still full of playfull mischievousness as he reluctantly leaned back again

"Who said I had no real reason?"

Derek smirked back at him, eyebrows raising as he moved his fingers up a little higher, gently running them through Stiles' hair

"You sure you still want me to be your _fake_ boyfreind?"

"Oh believe me," Stiles smirked, eyes lighting up even further

"I'll take you as realistically as you're willing,"

 

~+~

 

"Hey there, welcome to The Brewery, what can I do for you?"

The shop was different from Stiles', particularly in decoration

It had a little bit more of a city vibe to it than the more country, woodsy feel that Stiles' shop had, but the atmosphere was the same, gentle and positive and encouraging of positive energy and emotions

It was.... well, it was nice, actually

"Hey Kara, boss in yet?" Stiles asked absently, walking in casually as if he was there practically every week

And if Derek didn't know any better, he'd guess that maybe he was...

The blonde behind the counter frowned, shaking her head and adjusting her glasses

"Sorry, he's on a trip to Japan, he won't be back for another three days,"

" _What!?_ Well now's a fine time to tell me! Goddess, he bugs me for a month about coming down to see him, I finally do, he's across the freaking ocean!"

"I can let him know that you stopped by," the clerk offered with a gentle, sympathetic smile

"No thanks.... I have to pick up some ingredients for him, a few aren't sold on the floor, we're gonna have to wait," Stiles mused with a loud sigh

"Sorry about that... I can call him if you want?"

"That, actually, would be GREAT, and as a matter of fact, let him know I'm here with my BOYFREIND waiting on him,"

Kara apparently was in on this scheme, given the amused way her lips quirked up, before nodding and stepping out from behind the counter

"Ok, I'll call him then, don't let anyone rob the store," she teased, disappearing around the corner

"You can count on me, unlike SOME people," Stiles called back with a playfully annoyed snort, leaning against the counter and shaking his head

"I cannot believe this..."

"I know," Derek agreed sympathetically

"I hope you don't mind staying a little longer,"

"Why would I mind? My house is covered in cursed plants and I'm self-employed, not like I have anything better to do,"

Stiles nodded slowly, running his fingers through his hair as he glanced at the werewolf beside him

"That reminds me... what do you do anyway dude?"

"I'm an herbalist,"

There was a pause, breif and tense, before Stiles answered to that, as flatly as he could

"You have got to be freaking kidding me,"


End file.
